Schools say the process may be hurting its budget

Thursday

Mar 28, 2013 at 6:00 AMMar 29, 2013 at 12:00 AM

By Michael Kane BANNER EDITOR

Frustration is mounting for school officials who told members of the Board of Selectmen Monday that the district is facing a half-million dollar gap between what the committee says it needs and what Town Administrator Leon Gaumond Jr. is offering.

“It’s almost an insulting offer from Leon,” School Committee member Richard Shaw said.

Selectmen were invited to the School Committee’s Budget Subcommittee meeting to discuss the proposed budget, which was set to be formally proposed by Gaumond on Wednesday, after The Banner went to press. School Superintendent Elizabeth Schaper delivered her budget at a public hearing on March 13.

The numbers at this point are still in flux. Gaumond based the town’s revenue numbers off Governor Deval Patrick’s budget, which gave cities and towns more money, but was rife with tax increases that legislators say are not on their agenda. The House is expected to be work on its budget in April, after which the Senate will work on its budget. The final numbers will not be received in time for town meeting, but Gaumond should have a better idea of the state aid number from the House budget.

So far, he is using an increase in local revenue, such as property taxes and fees, of around $400,000. He is predicting state aid will be the same as last year. And that is part of the problem, at least from some of the School Committee’s perspective.

The board’s last joint meetings have been to discuss the overall numbers in the budget, and the fact that most, if not all of the increases received from the town go toward vocational education and special needs students. Monday’s discussion drifted into overall policy, starting with vocational education.

The School Committee has, in recent years, requested that vocational education be removed from its budget, and placed as a fixed cost to the town. Their argument is that the committee has no say in what trade schools charge West Boylston; by leaving the tuition in the school’s portion of the budget, the townspeople see a rapidly expanding school budget, but do not see that the money is not going toward Major Edwards or the Middle/High School, School Committee member Richard Shaw said.

“We have no control over that number,” Shaw said. “The only thing we control is what actually comes into our own district. This is like health insurance, it’s a fixed item.”

Selectmen have agreed already to make the vocational education lines separate from the schools when the budget is presented, but suggested the committee may not get what it wants by making the item a fixed cost.

Selectman Christopher Rucho pointed out that town meeting rarely discusses fixed cost items. Generally, voters accept those line items and move on. If the committee’s goal is to show the true cost of vocational education, it may not happen, Rucho said.

Selectmen Chairman Kevin McCormick pointed out that the current agreed-to budget formula, a predetermined 67-33 split of revenue between the schools and town, would need to be restructured.

“If you just move it, then the town has to come up with that money. Where are we going to find it?” McCormick asked. “Then the whole 67-33 percent thing has to be reworked, or everything goes to hell.”

He noted that, in past years, the School Committee wanted the vocational education to stay in its budget because, when students return to West Boylston mid-year, unspent tuition money returns to the schools, not the town.

“It’s only in recent years, when these numbers became so big, that you guys want it moved,” McCormick said.

Shaw refuted that statement. He noted, the number of students who return mid-year is usually only one or two per year, so the benefit is not worth the overall cost to the district.

Shaw also questioned how it is determined what the town revenues will be, and why the committee has no say in that. He described the number as a “top down” number forced on the committee that he said may not accurately reflect true revenue.

He suggested the town was being overly conservative with its numbers so as to bypass the 67-33 formula. Unspent money is later returned to the town as free cash. Shaw said the average amount returned to the town is $500,000, which is what the school needs this year.

Shaw, who is longest serving member of the School Committee, also said the 67-33 agreement predates him and the current committee does not necessarily agree with the arrangement.

McCormick, however, pointed out that he was on the Board of Selectmen when the agreement was made. It came after years of what he called “budget wars,” in which the two sides did not talk and the disputes were often carried into town meetings. At that time, both sides looked back at an average of recent years and determined the schools generally received 65 to 70 percent of the budget, and the formula was born.

McCormick said much of the free cash returned to the town in recent years is because Gaumond has put spending freezes on his departments mid-year, whenever it looked like budgets would be tight. Some of the free cash has come from the fact that the town has twice had a public works director resign mid-year, leaving some salary money unexpended.

“Leon became the public works director, but he didn’t take any money for that,” McCormick said.

Regarding why Gaumond determines revenue without the committee’s input, McCormick pointed out that is what the Special Act of 1995, which organized the town’s current form of government, calls for.

In regard to Shaw’s statement that Gaumond is underestimating restaurant and motel taxes to increase free cash in the following year, McCormick noted those numbers are based on what the state Department of Revenue tells the town it should expect.

McCormick also rejected the idea that town departments are getting everything they ask for before Gaumond determines the budget split. The committee may be unaware of the discussion on the town side because, on that side of the equation, department heads present their budgets to Gaumond before they are presented to selectmen. If they need to be reduced, it is typically done during that, non-public process between department head and manager.

“He dictates what they get,” McCormick said.

In this regard, he noted a sum of $100,000 Gaumond recently shifted to the school side. That money is above what the schools should have received under the agreement and given after Gaumond prepared his budgets with department heads.

For its part, the School Committee has been looking at ways of increasing school choice students, which will bring in extra revenue, Chairman John Owanisian said. Shaw noted he spent many hours trying to get the town accepted as a member to either Assabet Valley Technical School or Montachusett Technical School.

As members, the town would have elected representation on the school committees or those districts, and the superintendent would be required to come to town meeting and explain his budget. As it stands now, West Boylston is simply billed for tuition, and required to provide buses for the attending students.

Neither district was interested in accepting West Boylston as a member, Shaw said.

Schaper said she has proposed legislation to state Representative James O’Day that would put a cap on the number of students a vocational school can accept. Member towns have such a cap, but tuition-paying towns do not, she said. Theoretically, all of West Boylston’s students could ask to go to a vocational school and the town would be required to pay for it, she said.

In the end, McCormick credited, as he has in the past, the ability of the two boards to work together. He invited the committee to come to Gaumond’s budget presentation to discuss the issues and to have their questions answered by Gaumond.

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